The Swedish Public Employment Service is criticised for shortcomings in the design and justification of a deregistration decision

Summary of the decision: In decisions to deregister jobseekers from the Swedish Public Employment Service, it is not possible for the case officer to write a complete justification for the decision. Instead, they must select one of eight preset alternatives. The selected alternative can be supplemented by writing in a free-text field. The Parliamentary Ombudsman states that there is a risk that a system in which it is not possible to write the complete justification for a decision in free text will be misleading or inaccurate, and is of the opinion that it is unacceptable that the Swedish Public Employment Service’s case management system makes it harder for case officers to fulfil the requirement to clearly justify a decision. The Swedish Public Employment Service is criticised for shortcomings in the design and justification of such a decision.

The Parliamentary Ombudsman notes that the Swedish Public Employment Service has previously been criticised on several occasions for shortcomings in justifying its decisions, and that shortcomings in the agency’s systems have been repeatedly pointed out. It is concerning that these problems persist and the Parliamentary Ombudsmen will monitor the situation closely in their ongoing supervision.

The Parliamentary Ombudsmen have reached decisions in three other cases in which the Swedish Public Employment Service has been criticised for similar shortcomings (cf. reg. nos. 4903-2024, 5673-2024 och 8401-2024).